


What An Apology is Worth

by Angel Ascending (angel_in_ink)



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Apologies, Did You Know a Goat Costs One Gold?, Gen, Spoilers for Campaign 2 Episode 9, This Was a Prompt But I Would Have Written it Anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-10
Updated: 2018-03-10
Packaged: 2019-03-29 16:01:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13930458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angel_in_ink/pseuds/Angel%20Ascending
Summary: Jester, awake at dawn as usual, sat on her bed and frowned down at the sketchbook balanced on her knees, where she had been drawing the great beast she had helped her friends kill just a few days ago. Well, her friends and Caleb, she supposed, who had actually been becoming her friend, she had thought, until they had gotten into that argument about money outside the Tri-Spires and he had stormed off after making himself all dirty again. He hadn’t spoken to her since, and it wasn’t like all the other times he didn’t speak to her because he was reading or busy or whatever. He was purposefully not speaking to her and she was surprised how awful it made her feel.Jester, with Beau's help, gains a little perspective and understanding about the world.





	What An Apology is Worth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [StupidPoetry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/StupidPoetry/gifts).



> Written for @Stupid-Poetry based on a prompt they sent me wherein they wanted a fic where Jester apologizes to Caleb for their argument at the end of episode 9. Just in case it doesn't happen in the next episode or two.
> 
> Thank you to @CinWicked for helping me out with some fine tuning!

Jester, awake at dawn as usual, sat on her bed and frowned down at the sketchbook balanced on her knees, where she had been drawing the great beast she had helped her friends kill just a few days ago. Well, her friends and Caleb, she supposed, who had actually been becoming her friend, she had thought, until they had gotten into that argument about money outside the Tri-Spires and he had stormed off after making himself all dirty again. He hadn’t spoken to her since, and it wasn’t like all the other times he didn’t speak to her because he was reading or busy or whatever. He was _purposefully_ not speaking to her and she was surprised how awful it made her feel.

“I just don’t get it,” Jester said out loud. “I mean, I get that what I said made him upset, I just don’t know why, exactly.”

“Whazit?” Beau mumbled from her own bed, blinking blearily at Jester. “What time is it?”

“Early,” Jester said. “Sorry Beau, I forgot you were here.” She really had. Jester still wasn’t used to the idea of people being in the same room as her early in the morning or late at night, and kept forgetting that other people would be able to hear her if she talked out loud like she normally did. “Maybe you could help me though?”

“Oh sure,” Beau growled, rubbing at her eyes before propping herself up on one elbow. “Why not? I guess I’m awake now.”

“Oh thank you!” Jester said brightly. “So anyway, Caleb and I kind of got into a fight the other day because I said I only had fifty gold left which isn’t hardly anything, right? And he said fifty gold was a lot of money, except it’s _not_ , and he said that it was more money than his parents had ever made in their whole lives and I said it was how much money I had for an allowance every day and then he got really mad and stopped talking to me.”

Beau’s eyes had gone wide. “Oh fuck, is _that_ why he isn’t speaking to you? I mean, he hardly speaks to anyone sometimes but I thought he was not speaking to you like, extra hard.”

“Yeah, that’s why,” Jester said, frowning.

“Did you really have an allowance of fifty gold a day? I mean… what did you even spend it on?”

“Oh I don’t know,” Jester said. “I mean, I’d just ask for things like art supplies and pastries and books or pretty dresses or whatever. It might have been more than fifty gold, or less.”

“Okaaaaaay,” Beau said slowly, drawing the word out. “And where you’re from, like, everyone you saw was pretty well off?”

“Probably?” Jester said. “I mean, I used to sneak out of my room and walk through town and everyone looked about the same. I mean, I didn’t think about it. I don’t remember seeing any… poor people.”

“No, you probably wouldn’t have,” Beau said thoughtfully. “Doesn’t mean they weren’t there, though. So, okay, that helps me see where you’re coming from at least. You’ve never had to try and put this in perspective. For you, fifty gold is nothing because you had so _much_ gold. Not everyone is that lucky, though. Hells, _my_ family was pretty well off by small town standards and even I can’t imagine spending fifty gold a day as like, a regular thing.”

“Oh,” Jester said. “I hadn’t ever thought about it before, I guess.”

“And like, remember all those people we saw just outside of Zadash? The farmers and the people living in tents? To them, fifty gold would be something impossible. Even a couple gold would be incredible. Two gold can buy a pair of goats, and that’s milk and cheese to sell not to mention the offspring. That’d be wealth, to them. It’s all a matter of perspective.”

“I thought your parents owned a brewery,” Jester said. “How do you know about goats and money and things?”

“I had a seriously hot economics tutor,” Beau said with a smile. “And I asked her a lot of questions so I could spend more time with her. That and, well, the kids I used to hang around with weren’t the ones my parents wanted me to associate with, the sons and daughters of other merchants. I used to dress in the field laborers cast off clothes and hang out with the kids of, you know, the more common folk. At first because I knew it would piss off my dad if he found out, but then, because, well… they didn’t know who I was, and so they didn’t treat me differently than they would any other kid. And it was nice, while it lasted.” Beau looked sad for a moment, then shook her head. “Anyway, to those kids and their families, even a few extra silver or copper meant they didn’t have to worry about food for a little bit. And it sounds like maybe Caleb and his folks were in that same situation once upon a time. Who even knows though, that man deflects questions about his past as well as I deflect arrows.”

Jester thought about all that, and the more she thought about it, the worse she felt. “I think I understand why Caleb is mad at me now,” she said softly. “I just, I wasn’t thinking about things the right way at all.” She had had so much on her mind that day, thinking about her mother and the Traveler and everything, still getting used to traveling in a group, actually being around people _all the time. “_ Thank you, Beau,” she said, getting up and wrapping her arms around the monk in a hug.

“Oh um, sure, no problem,” Beau said, giving Jester an awkward pat on the back. “Could I maybe go back to sleep now?”

**********

The general chatter of breakfast flowed around Jester, but she wasn’t listening to any of it. She had wanted to go apologize to Caleb right after talking to Beau, but then realized that waking Caleb up would probably had just made him even more mad at her. He looked tired enough as it was, sitting at the table eating toast with one hand and slowly turning the pages of one of his new books with the other. When he looked like he was almost done eating, Jester finally spoke up.

“Caleb? Can I talk to you for a minute?”

All the chatter around them stopped as Caleb paused in turning the next page of his book and slowly looked up at Jester. Next to Caleb, Nott was looking at her nervously, and Jester could see out of the corner of her eye that Molly was looking at Jester with a curious expression. The silence stretched out like taffy.

Jester swallowed. “Please?”

Caleb sighed heavily and nodded.

The table cleared itself by magic, practically, if Beau loudly shooing everyone away could be considered magic. Then it was just Jester and Caleb, staring at each other. Jester looked down into her mug of goat’s milk as she tried to gather her thoughts. She had fought gnolls and manticores, but Caleb’s ice blue eyes on hers were unnerving. She looked back up at him with reluctance, but if she was going to apologize she was going to do it to his face and not mumble it into the table.

“I’m sorry about the other day,” Jester finally said. “I was thinking about other things, and about myself, and I’m not used to thinking about other people yet, so I didn’t realize what I was saying about money would probably make you angry, I just had never had to put it in perspective before, that probably not everyone is like me, and I didn’t mean to make you feel bad or be inconsiderate or anything and I really want to know if we could be friends because we were kind of almost friends before, weren’t we?” The words tumbled out like a waterfall, a rush of a sentence.

Silence, and then Caleb sighed again and closed his book. “I think we are both not used to being around people in entirely different ways. Do you promise to try and think before you speak in the future?”

Jester nodded frantically. “I mean, I’m not used to that but I could learn probably?”

“Okay then, we are good.” Caleb ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “I am sorry, you were… what’s the phrase? The last straw? I had been having a shit morning and one of the guards had kicked Frumpkin and I mean, I re- summoned him, so he’s fine now—“

“They did _what_ to Frumpkin?” Jester’s hands clenched the edges of the tabletop as she stood up suddenly. “Caleb, you should have _told_ me! Do you remember what the guard looked like? No wait, you would, you remember everything. We have to avenge Frumpkin!”

Caleb looked off to the side for a moment, drumming his fingers on the cover of his book before looking back at Jester. “I am going to regret asking this, I know I am, but how would we do that exactly?”

Jester grinned. “Extreme pranking. Possibly involving goats. I heard they cost about a gold apiece, and afterwards we can give them to someone who could use them! It’d be good for the economy!”

Caleb looked bemused but intrigued, and Jester laughed, because the sure key to friendship was to prank someone together.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm angel-ascending over on Tumblr if you want to stop by and say hi!


End file.
